THE LATEST AT LW

​We (finally) came to the realization that we were building and managing amazing brands for our clients, but completely failing when it came to doing this for ourselves. The reality of the situation was that since inception, nearly four years ago, we have grown 400%. And yes, it has been as crazy as you would imagine things would be with 400% growth. We became so engulfed in just keeping up with our clients projects that we lost sight of practicing what we preach.

​The sports industry (along with many others) is highly driven by referrals. One of the biggest reasons is because trust is one of the key factors. We've all heard the horror stories of athletes being taken advantage of, particularly when it comes to their money or their business deals. And half the time it's their advisor or a family member. We had gotten so engrained in the idea that referrals were going to be the end all and be all. And yes, they help move the needle, especially when the person referring them is someone the athlete trusts, but we still have to be ready to "pitch" once the intro is made. Given that we live in such a digital age your social media platforms and your website are both your resume and your portfolio. And unless you're keeping it updated, how the heck is anyone supposed to know what you offer or what type of work you have done?

We decided to take on our toughest client yet: ourselves. We basically went through the same exact steps that we would when we take on a professional athlete client. We dug deep into all of our media platforms and our website, quickly realizing that we were doing a horrible job at effectively communicating who we are and what we do. Before we rebuilt our entire brand we actually went through the process of having every member of the team define their own personal brand. Whenever people ask what makes LW Branding different than another company in industry, our answer is always our people. So it only made sense to start there. We each clearly defined our personal brand, how we wanted it portrayed to the world, and then our one, three, and five year goals.

​It's been weeks worth of strategy and planning, which has involved long days in the office and meetings with individuals who have insane amounts of experience in this field. At the end of every day we've left feeling as if every single part of our brand had been used up, but we knew it was moving us in the right direction. We couldn't be more proud to not only unveil our work to the world, but more so to know that we have a very clear direction and plan to follow from here on out.

As a takeaway, we think it's important to highlight that although it seems like getting the work done is the most important, it's also equally important (if not more) to take a step back and strategize. It's usually in those moments that you find clarity and put yourself in a position that can really take things to the next level. Also, make sure to always check in with yourself and really ask: Am I practicing what I preach?